Juliana Louceiro, Alice Moreira
The International Day of Older Persons was proclaimed in Resolution 45/106 adopted by the UN General Assembly on 14 December 1990.
Improvements in living conditions and advances in medicine have contributed to a high increase in average life expectancy in most countries of the world. United Nations studies indicate that, by 2050, the number of older adults will double (https://www.un.org/development/desa/ageing/international-day-of-older-persons-homepage.html).
The big increase will take place in Asian and African countries, as in European and North American countries this is a change that is already taking place.
The International Day of Older Persons is a day to celebrate the value of older adulthood to our societies, highlighting its important contributions to the whole community. For the 2022 International Day of Older Persons, the United Nations focused on the female gender. Thus, they chose the following as their objectives:
- To highlight the resilience of older women in the face of environmental, social, economic and lifelong inequalities
- To raise awareness of the importance of improved world-wide data collection, disaggregated by age and gender
- To call on member states, UN entities, UN Women, and civil society to include older women in the center of all policies, ensuring gender equality as described in the Secretary-General’s report, Our Common Agenda (https://gicpensioners.com/news.php?id=474).
The ageing of the population is already transforming the various sectors of western societies: the financial market; work; the demand and supply of goods and services; housing; transport, leisure, social protection, family structures and intergenerational ties. Projects such as Smart Against Ageism are fundamental at a time of transformations, such as the one we are experiencing, as they enable us to promote the inclusion of all, promoting empathy and tolerance towards older adults.